


Where in the Universe is Keith Blade?

by StressedBatchOfUploads



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ALTEA is ACME, Allura is Chief, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Carmen Sandiego, Alternate Universe - Detective/Thief, Coran is a mixture of the Twins and his own unique self, EMPIRE is VILE, Haggar is Professor Maelstrom, Hunk is Jules Argent, Keith Blade is Carmen Sandiego, Krolia is Coach Brunt, Lance McClain is Chase Devineaux, Lotor is Countess Cleo, M/M, Nyma is Tigress, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pidge is Player, Rolo is Gray/Graham, Slav is Doctor Sarah Bellum, Zarkon is Cookie Booker, aka voice of wisdom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2019-10-13 18:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17493197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StressedBatchOfUploads/pseuds/StressedBatchOfUploads
Summary: Yorak is perfectly happy training to be a thief for the EMPIRE, until he discovers that stealing priceless trinkets and money isn't the only crime EMPIRE is guilty of, witnessing a murder firsthand. And not only that, it seems the students and teachers of EMPIRE aren't even human. Not even his own mother.Lance just wants to catch the elusive thief in red, but when he witnesses firsthand that Keith Blade might not be as human as he thought just before he seems to vanish off the face of the earth, he's pretty sure this guy is out of his league.Until a super secret alien agency recruits him out of the blue one day.





	1. Seeing Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red is the color of danger...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... just binged Carmen Sandiego yesterday... and I had A MIGHTY NEED.
> 
> Now my Voltron babies will be safe from canon *whew*, not safe from me, though. Sorry-not-sorry.
> 
> Next month is Klance AU month, and I was kinda thinking about participating, and then I had this idea... and then I got impatient... Why am I like this? Hopefully you guys like it, though.
> 
> Edit: Since the list has been released and they said it was okay to post out of order, I'm chalking this one up to day 23, TV Show of Choice, the TV show being Carmen Sandiego, of course. My actual fill for the prompt is going to be the next update though, it's coming along nicely!
> 
> I toyed with the idea of Lance being Carmen for all of two seconds, trying to decide where I would fit other characters, but Keith wouldn't obsess over Lance as hard as I would want him to, to fill the character dynamic between Carmen and Chase, and where I could see Lance falling for Keith in that situation, Keith wouldn't develop feelings for Lance, so I switched them! That rival fire will now be thief fire and nothing's going to stand in the way of Lance getting his man! Not even the vast emptiness of the cosmos!
> 
> Okay, I'll stop talking now, please enjoy!

EMPIRE has made no secret that it's not the best of organizations, morally wise.

"Elite Martial Pilfering, Infamously Relentless and Elusive," Coach Krolia enunciates clearly to the assembled new students, a young and proudly smiling Yorak among them. "In your time here, you will be treated like the most advanced of soldiers. Your teachers will show you no mercy, your curriculum will put your lives in danger, and," She sends a sharp look around the room. "Your fellow classmates will be expected to conquer and overtake you." She smirks at the wary look her audience gives to either side of themselves. "So conquer and overtake them first."

"And above all," she stresses, "Everything you do now, you do for the EMPIRE."

It had been quite the discussion between the teachers when Yorak asked to attend EMPIRE training early.

"He's not ready," Shiro-san was quick to point out.

"He may be young," Dr. Slav conceded quietly, "But he's had far more training than any recruit here, if only by osmosis."

"Slav is right," Krolia agrees, aiming a smile at her son. "Yorak has gumption. I say he's ready to be taken seriously."

Yorak's answering smile turns into a frown as Count Lotor sneers lightly, "I, for one, am not thrilled with the notion of having to deal with Yorak's lack of manners in a classroom setting. The boy is feral," he sniffs.

"Precisely why he might be overdue for properly supervised training," Professor Haggar rebukes quietly, side-eyeing her son.

"EMPIRE's training is not for the tender-hearted--" Shiro-san continues to persist, only to cut off by Yorak himself.

"I'm willing to do _whatever_ it takes."

All of the teachers look at him. "Anything?" Dr. Slav asks nervously.

Yorak nods sharply.

Everyone looks to Shiro-san as he sighs. "Then I guess I have no argument."

Yorak beams and Krolia smiles softly. "My little soldier."

~

Growing up in the EMPIRE, Yorak never saw any of the behaviors of the students or teachers as weird. What was weird was how they tried to hide it from him.

Count Lotor's hair would almost have a silver sheen in some lights, but he would always brush it behind slightly pointed ears when he caught Yorak's gaze lingering on it for any amount of time.

Dr. Slav's hands would move over his screens so fast, it almost looked like he had more than two, but he would slow down with a quickness when he saw Yorak standing in the doorway and anxiously ask what he wanted.

Professor Haggar's eyes would glow yellow at times, dimming when she caught sight of him, pulling up her hood and walking away.

His mother's bruises from training that he watched with starry eyes faithfully everyday would spread much farther than they should, the purple a much lighter shade than any of his similarly colored bruises, even though they had the same shade of skin, and she would smile off his worries and put a special cream from Dr. Slav on them, making them disappear in seconds when his would take weeks.

Even the older kids in the cafeteria would hide some of their foods from his curious eyes. But he would still catch glimpses of spindly legs, or some kind of jello with the wrong consistency.

The only person who wouldn't try to hide anything from him was Shiro-san, though Yorak never hung out with him much anyway.

One day, when they had just met, his best friend Rolo had asked him the weirdest question, "So, what are you?"

Yorak raises a confused brow. "A thief?" The duh is heavily implied.

"No," he laughs, "What species?"

"Human?" The duh is still very implied. "My mom said my dad was from Texas."

"You-" Rolo's eyes widen then. "Ohhh, so you're the guy."

Yorak crosses his arms and looks around them. "I'm what guy?"

"Nothing, nothing. Don't worry about it." Rolo slings an arm over Yorak's shoulders. "Thinking of stealing anything from the teachers for extra credit?"

Rolo had never brought it up again, but Yorak always thought about it when he was thinking of the other boy.

~

One night, something crashes onto the island.

Yorak is the first to investigate and finds… a phone. He turns it on, impressed to see that it still works despite falling from who knows how high, brushing away the tiny voice in the back of his mind reminding him that communication with the outside world is forbidden. He's even more surprised when, as soon as it's on, it starts ringing.

He picks up. "Hello?"

"Dang," the voice, very high-pitched, younger than him, on the other end of line answers. Just as he starts to frown, the voice says, "Sorry to sound disappointed, but if I can understand you, that means the phone didn't get very far."

"Uh, okay?"

"So, where are you?"

"Uh," Yorak says again, looking around. "I couldn't tell you. I'm on an island, though."

"Are you stranded?" they ask, seeming confused on why he would be there otherwise.

"No, I live here," he says defensively.

"Okay, okay. So! What's your name?" they ask excitedly.

"What's yours?" he deflects.

"You can call me Pidge."

"I'm Yorak."

"… Sounds fake, but okay."

~

Yorak sits on the beach, one headphone in his ear, watching the red waves slowly darken to indigo as the sun goes down.

"…So I _know_ they're out there," Pidge is saying in his ear, "I just have to find the people who took them."

Yorak is awkward. He excels at anything combat and stealth related but stumbles when it comes to interacting with others and Pidge was rather reluctant to actually become friends with someone who had only found one of her phones that she had launched to set up a global network that made it easier for her to hack into anywhere, so it had been quite a while, a whole eight months of successful thief classes, before they had finally opened up to each other. She knows that his dad is dead, and he's with his mom on a military(ish) base and he knows that her dad and brother had gone missing while researching something in the middle of nowhere and she had only discovered the suspicious circumstances surrounding their disappearance when she hacked the University they were working for, the Garrison, and found out that they had been covering it up.

"Were they the only ones on the expedition?" Yorak asks.

"No," she says, "My dad's TA, Shiro, went with them. As like, a bodyguard or something, I don't know."

Yorak has a funny feeling. One of the EMPIRE's rules comes to mind then, " _First names or codenames only._ " Yorak's first name _is_ his codename, and he and his mother don't have last names. He's never heard Shiro-san's, so even if he asks Pidge…

"Do you know what Shiro looks like?" Yorak asks quietly.

"Yeah, he used to come over for dinner all the time. He's of Asian decent, I think Japanese? His hair's black but there's a white patch in the front." That could describe anyone, everyone dyes their hair wacky colors. The EMPIRE trains thieves not-- "And he had a scar over his nose." Yorak's heart stops. "Pretty deep, too. I think it gave him breathing problems…"

Kidnappers… "I have to go."

"Sure, see ya." Pidge hangs up, used to Yorak's ungraceful goodbyes.

Yorak slips the earbud out and buries his toes in the sand as he bows his head. What does this mean?

~

He decides to confront Shiro-san.

Today is relatively lax with classes as Zarkon, EMPIRE's accountant comes in on the boat today and he never particularly wants to be greeted with a bunch of green students when he gets to the island, and so the teachers do their best to encourage them to do whatever they want out of his sight. Keith usually makes a point of staying out of sight while launching water balloons filled with that weird jello at Zarkon, so technically he's doing what they want, but today he forgoes it to go to Shiro-san's classroom to get answers.

He stops outside of the paper doors, about to slide them open, when he hears, "Krolia, I just can't do it anymore. I want to go home."

"Then I will send you there," his mother answers, and then-

Red. Splashed against the papers doors with a graphic wet slop.

A pained grunt and a body hits the floor as Yorak gasps.

A moment of silence.

Then, "Yorak?"

He runs.

~

He's with Zarkon in an elevator, how in the world did he get here?

He tries hard not to think about the answer.

"I know it was you, that threw the food goo at me," Zarkon rumbles.

Yorak bows his head contritely. "I have been meaning to make up for that…"

"So that's why I didn't receive my usual warm welcome. I suppose I shouldn't expect more from a thief in training," he sighs.

Yorak bites back on the urge to grimace. Is that really what the EMPIRE was training him for? Now that he knows the truth, his classes _are_ teaching a lot more skills than even your better than average thief needs to know. Perfect training for an assassin, though.

"I think you could do much more than the grunt work, Yorak," Zarkon says looking down at him. Yorak pales a little when Zarkon's teeth and lips harden and sharpen into points. "You could do white collar crime up in the stars, like me."

Yorak forces a smile, as best he can. "Thank you, sir. That's high praise."

Zarkon chuckles. "We Galra have to stick together since they're including so many more of the Universe's species into the EMPIRE."

" _No, what species?_ " Rolo laughs in Yorak's mind. "Right."

The elevator dings and the doors open. "Vrepit Sa," Zarkon calls behind him as he walks off with a toolbox.

~

His mother runs out on the dock, but he manages to get the boat away in time. Tears gather in his eyes as he looks at her, enraged and confused with her short sword drawn. "I'm sorry," he whispers, and pulls away.

He calls Pidge. "I made it," he says without preamble. "I'm off the island. I need to know where on-" _Up in the stars. Universe's species._ "Where on Earth I am."

"Canary Islands," she answers after a few seconds.

"Never coming back here again," he grumbles.

"Where are you going to go?"

"Anywhere. Somewhere away from here. Maybe I'll travel the world," he jokes.

"You'll need an actual _human_ name for that," Pidge laughs back, but it stops Yorak in his tracks.

Krolia, Lotor, Haggar, Slav, _Yorak._ God, he is so stupid. He takes off Zarkon's- Zarkon! Stupid!- ridiculously gaudy red hat and rakes a hand through his hair. The matching red coat is surprisingly light, if a little warm, but he keeps it on to keep most of the sea spray from getting to him. A human name--

" _Your father,_ " Krolia told Yorak as she combed through his hair with her fingers. " _Wanted to name you_ Keith _of all things. Can you imagine having such a strange name?_ "

"Keith," he murmurs.

Pidge's laughter slowly dies as she asks him distractedly, "What?"

"My name is Keith," Keith says, then thinks of the only possession his father left to him. "Keith Blade."

"Mysterious," Pidge chirps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Hopefully, you saw some characters and thought they were placed perfectly _and_ you saw some characters and thought, "She must not have meant to do that." Yes. I did. Just so that you would be confused. Is it working? ;P
> 
> I even switched in some characters in scenes where their Carmen counterparts were not originally featured. I think it's sufficiently confusing and frustrating at this point, which means I'm doing my job. I'm so proud of myself. *wipes away tear* I want this to still be a mystery series like Carmen Sandiego is, even though this is an AU, so I threw in some new elements, completely changed others, and gave _myself_ a headache with how many twists and turns I've plotted for this. Wish me luck! And I really hope you guys like it!
> 
> Next chapter is Lance!
> 
> The characters of Voltron: Legendary Defender belong to Dreamworks and in no way are mine, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.
> 
> The characters of Carmen Sandiego belong to Broderbund (original) and HMH IP Company Unlimited Company (2019 remix).


	2. Blinded By Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue calms... It is the color of truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM NOT CALM. I HAVE NO CHILL I JUST FINISHED THIS AND I WANTED YOU GUYS TO SEE THIS _IMMEDIATELY_ I'M SO PROUD OF IT.
> 
> If they'll still accept this being posted so early, this is my fill for 2019's February Klance AU month, Day 23 - TV Show of Choice! (The show's Carmen Sandiego- you guys know, yeah, i'm gonna shut up now.)

The first time he saw him, he wondered if there was a convention or something happening near there. Because that guy… no one seriously dresses like that normally, and that mullet was way too atrocious to not be a wig. And his eyes were _indigo_. Whose eyes are indigo?

Still the guy looked lost, eyes roaming up and down the street, and he wasn't hard on the eyes either so Lance McClain, being the helpful dashing Detective he is, took it upon himself to lend this troubled soul a hand after a quick breath check and raking a hand through his hair.

"Hey, man!" Those indigo eyes turn to him and whoa, were they a sight in the setting sun. Feeling his face heat, Lance clears his throat and smiles. "You okay? You looked like you were looking for something."

The man in red eyes him up and down before his mouth quirks up in a sly smirk that has Lance short of breath. "Don't worry. I can find it just fine."

"You sure you don't need any help? Or maybe just some company?" He tries one more time, smiling charmingly. Telling himself if he's turned down this time now that he's made his offer clear he'll be on his way.

"Unfortunately, no, I don't." Lance feels a small amount of disappointment curl in his chest but it lightens at the smile the guy gives him. "Thank you for the offer, though." He tips his red hat.

"Anytime." Lance waves and walks away. Just in time to walk up to Hunk as he comes out of a Deli with a, frankly, godly looking sandwich. "Where's mine?" he asks through the drool that threatens to pour out of his lips at the sight of it.

With an angelic smile, Hunk holds out another wrapped sandwich that Lance hadn't noticed when faced with the unwrapped beauty. Lance makes a pitifully grateful sound as he takes it and Hunk says, "You know I wouldn't let my best bud go hungry."

Through the sandwich, Lance murmurs out three syllables that Hunk correctly guesses to be the words, 'I love you', and pats Lance gently on the back as he takes a bite of his own sandwich.

So, turned down by a cute guy but he was able to enjoy a heavenly sandwich with his best friend, not a bad trade, Lance would say, and would later amend to best bullet dodged.

That night, when he and Hunk are still in the area, dispatch calls them. "There's a suspect around there that just fled from a robbery. An asian male, in a red coat and hat." And if that doesn't strike him as familiar, the man himself when they finally get close to him does. Literally, almost.

Lance pinwheels as his dodge very nearly overbalances him. "So you were a thief," he accuses with a glare.

The man in red readjusts his grip on the bag of whatever he's stolen, oddly at ease even though both Lance and Hunk have cornered him in an alley. "Still am one," he smirks, the same one from earlier that day.

Lance frowns harder. "Drop the goods and put your hands in the air."

"Afraid I can't do that, Officer Flirt." As Lance flushes, the man shakes something from his coat sleeve and aims it above him, Lance and Hunk instinctively duck when there's a discharge, but instead of a bullet, a line of rope hooks onto the roof above them.

Lance's eyes widen. "Freeze!" he orders as he lunges forward, but with another smirk the man is lifted into the air and is running fast across the rooftops, leaving Lance stumbling as there's no one to bowl over.

For a few seconds, he and Hunk stare at where the thief disappeared above them.

"He was a lot more prepared for this than I thought," Lance says.

He feels the burn of a stare on the side of his face and turns to Hunk, who has a hand on his chin. "Officer Flirt?" he asks.

Lance points at Hunk flusteredly. "Hey! I did not know he was a thief when I flirted with him, okay! That red coat looked really good on him!"

~

Lance sees the man in red several more times after that. You would think that he would get a less conspicuous outfit, but no. It's almost like he wants them to know that he's the thief. And he only ever steals tech from Garrison University, too. It would explain where he gets all his frustratingly useful gadgets from.

"Why the Garrison?" Lance puffs one night when he's running after him over the rooftops. He's taken up parkour as a hobby lately as a consequence of these altitude-inclined jaunts. "Why the outfit? Who even are you?"

The guy stops suddenly and Lance is so unprepared that he crashes into him and takes them both down- but no, he doesn't, because the man in red _was_ prepared and flips their positions just before his back meets the shingles, making Lance take the brunt of the fall instead. He looms above him, those indigo eyes- they could still be contacts, they have to be contacts, no one's eyes are that color- shining brighter than the moonlight that silhouettes him. "You shouldn't be getting attached, Officer McClain." Lance closes his mouth on the question of how the man knows his name when his badge- that he didn't even feel leaving his pocket- is held up between gloved fingers. "I'm not the kind of person you should be getting close to."

"See, that's not fair," Lance complains, heedless of the fact that he's currently pinned under a well-known criminal. "You know my name, but I don't know yours."

An amused huff through the man's nose. "Keith Blade," he says, and drops Lance's badge over his eyes.

When Lance shakes it off his face, Keith is gone.

~

On another one of their nightly chases, Lance gets distracted by noticing Keith's hair is getting longer, and misses a jump from one roof to the next. He hears Hunk yelling his name from the open window of their patrol car following them on the streets below as he falls and feels a keen sorrow at the thought that Hunk will have to find a new partner, when a gloved hand latches onto his unconsciously outstretched arm with a bruising grip.

Lance looks up and meets frightened indigo. The man in red breathing extremely hard even though Lance has never seen Keith out of breath, even when their races last for miles at a time.

Slowly, Keith hauls him up, one handed, and Lance fights the heat rising in his face tooth and nail. Keith lies him gently on the roof, and still shaking with the adrenaline of the fall Lance can only plop backwards and breathe deeply.

"Never again…" Lance hears, and turns his head to see Keith looking at him like a mirage of his worst nightmare had come and gone before he had time to really register it. "The only person I want to see wearing red is me."

He disappears and Lance lets him. Calling down that he's okay when Hunk yells his name again.

~

"So why are we questioning the ones being stolen from, again?" Hunk asks.

"Why would a thief target a University? Multiple times, even."

Hunk thinks about it. "Important research?" he guesses.

"But the Garrison never reported anything like that stolen," Lance points out, "Only their tech."

"Hmm," Something sparks in Hunk's eyes and he looks up at Lance from where his gaze dropped in thought. "Illegal or unethical research, then, maybe. Something they wouldn't want to report stolen."

"Possibly," Lance concedes, "But I think it's something more than that. More than just the tech, even."

"Did Keith say something?"

Lance pauses on the steps to the University's Administration Office, and looks back at his friend. "I think this is personal for him. He said…" Lance looks down, brow furrowed. "After he saved me from falling, he said he wants to be the only one to wear red. He said," Lance looks up. "'Never again.'"

Hunk's eyes widen and he looks up at the Office. "So you think…"

Lance frowns. "Only one way to know for certain."

They ask around. Most of the Professors don't think much of the thefts, even when checking with development and engineering, the people in charge say that nothing irreplaceable was stolen, just a few of their specialized tools and maybe an engine or two that would be a fun side project for the students to make a new version of to replace it. They say they don't have any special projects that would warrant such criminal desire for it, but when this question is posed to some of the higher ups of Administration, Principal Iverson, Dean Ellen Sanda, they start getting shifty and start asking defensive questions of their own.

"Why don't you actually do your job and catch this thief instead of asking the school staff unnecessary questions?" Dean Sanda asks them as she picks up her briefcase and leaves her office for the day.

Lance and Hunk look at each other.

"They're definitely hiding something."

" _Oh_ yeah."

~

Though, thanks to Sanda's insistence on them stepping up their thief-catching game, she can't really say no when they ask to wait inside school grounds to lay a trap for Keith when he's next spotted strutting about in all his red glory.

Lance catches sight of red darting around the side of a building and motions for Hunk to follow him as he takes off towards it, they see him hopping down into a manhole like opening into the ground, the heavy latch already open and to the side without either of them having heard the doubtlessly squeaky big wheel that would've had to be turned to get in.

"How does he _do_ that?" Lance asks a little frustratedly. When Hunk moves to go down the hole after him, Lance stops him with an arm. "We don't want to make him feel cornered, we just want answers." Nodding, his friend waits by his side.

A few minutes later, Keith ascends, facing away from them, lugging a sizable piece of tech that glows a weird yellow that he observes carefully once it's in the moonlight.

"Keith," Lance calls, startling the thief into losing his grip on the tech.

Long and cylindrical, the thing tips towards Keith and bumps against his exposed cheek. The light touch makes him hiss loudly in discomfort, and just before Lance can ask him if he's okay, his face… changes. Not his expression, his actual face. Purple, almost as dark as the night, spreads from the point of contact, over his cheekbones, up the bridge of his nose, passing his brow, and crawling down his jaw. A couple of his teeth, bared in his grimace, elongate and sharpen into delicate fangs. And his eyes, when he finally opens them, are not the moon-kissed indigo Lance has grown so used to seeing looking smugly back at him or winking just before he disappears from their nightly chases, they're an eerie yellow, glowing like the tech in his hands, but a faint shade lighter.

Keith hurriedly shoves the tech away from him, but the damage is done, the only thing that changes are his indigo irises fading back into existence in front of the glowing yellow as he reaches a hand, that is slowly growing claws, up to his transformed face. "Fuck," he hisses in- unsurprised, Lance notices- distress.

He looks up at Lance and Hunk, who gape at him in shock, before scooping up the tech and _bolting_ away.

"Keith, wait!" Lance calls, but he's already gone.

"Well," says Hunk, "I'd say this is officially out of our jurisdiction."

Lance glares back at him but can't deny it.

~

That was the last time Lance McClain saw Keith Blade.

Six months later and the man in red hasn't shown up again since, leaving Lance wondering if he got out of the life of crime or if he had accidentally caused Keith to never be able to show his face in public again. Despite it obviously being a fake name, Lance had searched for Keith using the Force's database and got a ping on a passport and a few international plane tickets, but other than that, nothing. He had heard the nickname whispered before, on the Garrison campus and in the station, but Keith really was like a crimson ghost. It could be a very likely possibility, seeing as Keith turned out to be something at least somewhat supernatural.

After a long day of paperwork at the station, Lance sits down on his bed, takes off his tie, and kicks off his shoes. Flopping back, still mostly clothed, as he stares up at the ceiling unseeingly.

Where in the Universe is Keith Blade?

A bright blue light blinds him.

~

"Lance?" Hunk calls after using his spare key to get in his friend's apartment. "I brought pizza. And donuts, for irony. There's nothing ironic about how delicious they are, though."

He steps into the living room, but no one's there. He shrugs and goes into the kitchen for a plate. Taking a huge bite of a slice, he goes to sit down, but pauses, butt hanging over the cushion, when he doesn't hear any sounds of his friend complaining about work. Or Keith. Or Keith-related work, though that one has died down since Keith went missing. But the important thing is, his very loud best friend is utterly silent. Something is wrong here.

He puts down his plate.

"Lance?"

He checks several rooms, until he gets to the bedroom, finding Lance's shoes and tie, but no Lance.

"Where in the world did you go?"

~

When Lance wakes up, he's in a bright white room, seated in a very comfortable chair with his arms locked to the armrests. Looking at the manacles, they seem to be coming from the chair itself and he would've said they had been molded around his wrists if he didn't know any better. Squinting through the bright light, Lance tries to look around the extremely well-lit room and finds a lone, no, there's two, vague silhouettes.

One of them must notice his difficulty seeing, as the lights dim, a soft voice saying, "It takes me a moment to adjust when I first get on board too."

His question of whether or not they're on a boat dies on his lips once he can finally see the details of the two silhouettes. They're… grey, and a little spiky. They're like… living rocks… And their eyes… they look just like Keith's did that one time. Lance's eyes dart between them, surprised by their appearance, but also, trying to find which one just spoke. The voice _sounded_ feminine, but…

The one on the right, the one with shorter spikes- horns?- pulls out a crystal from their robes, walks forward and puts it on the floor.

With a flicker, it glows brightly and a hologram of a beautiful dark skinned woman hovers above it. She has triangular marks on her cheeks and white hair and… pointed ears, and something tells Lance they aren't part of a very elaborate make-up job.

"Lance McClain," the woman in the hologram greets. "Thank you for joining us."

Lance's eyes briefly dart to the other presences in the room. "Um…?"

"You are… human, correct?"

"I…" Lance gulps. "Yes? Who are you? Why am I here?"

"You can call me Chief." The woman motions behind her and the rock person on the left lifts something in their hand and activates it. Lance's cuffs slide smoothly back into the chair, releasing him. He rubs his wrists. "And you're here because it's come to my understanding that you have knowledge on someone that has recently come to our attention."

Keith. Lance can't think of any other reason these otherworldly beings would want to question him. He narrows his eyes. "We, who?"

She smiles at him. "ALTEA. Alliance Leveling Trouble, Evil, and Atrocities. We are a universal task force designed to keep cosmic threats suppressed before they ever present a real danger." She frowns sadly. "Unfortunately, it seems somewhere along the way we failed to notice a problem that has now hooked its influence and corruption through several galaxies and has seeped down to disrupt even the smallest planet's economy," She looks up at Lance. "Even Earth."

Lance pales. "Keith is…?"

Her eyes spark. "So you do know about Keith Blade?"

"I do," Lance stammers, "But he's not- I never thought that he- Even when-"

Chief makes calming hand motions. "We don't suspect Keith is a part of EMPIRE. We still need quiznacking proof of EMPIRE's deeds to even prove they exist," she huffs.

Lance looks at her in confusion. "Then why do you want Keith?"

A projection separate from the Chief pops up from the crystal, photos of red blurs in different areas, the last to pop up only a fraction clearer as Keith pauses with a clawed hand to a big fuzzy ear, the brim of his hat shading one faintly glowing eye. Lance releases a shaky breath. He knew he wasn't seeing things that night. There was some doubt in the back of his mind somewhere, but if this whole thing with the rock people and the elf lady isn't a giant hallucination then there's none now.

"Based on Keith Blade's movements, we have gathered that he knows a lot more about EMPIRE than we do, and we need that sort of information. In order to get it, we're willing to offer you, Lance McClain, the first being to have made a report on him, the tools to find him."

Lance shifts in his seat. "I'm not sure I would be comfortable with a forceful interrogation--"

The Chief snorts inelegantly. "We don't do that sort of thing, Lance. We just want to talk to him." She sighs. "He just runs off before we ever get the chance to."

"Sounds familiar," Lance murmurs, then rubs his wrists, "But if kidnapping people and strapping them to a chair is your prerequisite for a conversation then I can't say that I blame Keith for running away."

The Chief blushes. "Your planet has a record of panicking when coming into contact with other species, we had to take precautions." She regains her composure by clearing her throat and standing tall. "So, Detective McClain, what do you say? Will you join ALTEA?"

Lance clears his throat as well and smiles charmingly. "You guys wouldn't happen to have a second opening as well, would you?"

~

Dropping his plate and shrieking shrilly, Hunk is engulfed in a bright blue light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _shit_ this is gonna be so much damn fun, i can't wait
> 
> I am working on my original novels right now, though so don't expect fast updates for- well, any of my other fics for a long while. Or maybe they'll be updated a lot quicker as I shift which stories I procrastinate on, who knows?
> 
> The characters of Voltron: Legendary Defender belong to Dreamworks and in no way are mine, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.
> 
> The characters of Carmen Sandiego belong to Broderbund (original) and HMH IP Company Unlimited Company (2019 remix).


	3. ORANGE You Glad I Saw You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oranges can be refreshing... and acidic. Be careful with your vitamin C dosage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had the same problem with this story as Príncipe de la Lluvia and figured I'd cut this into two chapters too. don't expect a double update, tho, because i'm still working on the later half of this
> 
> hope you guys enjoy! :D

"Now, are you sure you want to do this?" Coran asks as he holds up the cream he just mixed together. "After I put this on, it'll be a while before you can return to normal."

"This is not my normal," Keith answers, gaze falling to his claws. "I'm sure."

Nodding, Coran spreads the cream over the pulse points on his wrists and neck, and Keith's skin slowly fades to the pale hue he had on Earth.

From her nearby perch where she watches enraptured, Pidge says, "It's a good thing we were able to steal some of this stuff from one of Slav's laboratories before we left the planet."

"And it's a good thing you ran into me before you tried to activate this stuff on your own," Coran huffs. "Honestly, trying to put it directly on your skin without diluting it with ga'rtoo, did you want to melt your face off?"

Keith huffs back. "That's what my mom did, how was I supposed to know she did something else first?"

Keith and Pidge had met Coran in a marketplace at the edge of the milky way. They were getting some supplies before they left their home galaxy and with Pidge being so tiny and obviously human, they figured it was best for Keith to remain looking galra while they stocked up. Coran was talking the ear off some bored-looking vendor when he saw Pidge looking at a high tech phase weapon with evolving capabilities and struck up a chat with her about how it evaluated its wielder's capabilities and adjusted to any weapon in its database that better suits their fighting style. Keith went over to them when he saw the weird mustached dude flailing around his friend and was then besieged by an insatiably curious Coran about what one of his species was doing so far from his home system.

Coran was, and is, very… personable. When Keith and Pidge were trying to get on their way, he kept right on chatting away and in attempt to get him to let them leave, Keith harshly blurted out that they were kind of in the middle of trying to take down an evil organization, but Coran had delightedly exclaimed that he hadn't done that in decades and invited himself along. So now they have… a Coran. Honestly, he's too well-versed in everything to pin him down with one title. And having someone who actually knew all the ins and outs of space travel was invaluable. While Pidge could rig up and sup up a working spaceship in a few years, neither she nor Keith really knew anything beyond their planet due to Earth's infancy with space.

And it was pure coincidence that Coran happened to wander by while Keith was getting ready to put on his 'human cream' as he calls it, and Coran's cry of alarm at recognizing the substance had stopped Keith from actually melting his skin off with the acidic stuff. Apparently, it had to be diluted with dirt from this other planet that Keith couldn't pronounce.

"How did you even recognize this stuff anyway?" Keith asks as the yellow bleeds out of his sclera. "I thought it was only on earth where Slav made it."

Coran pauses in screwing the lid back on the now diluted and ready to use cream and whips his head around to Keith. "You've _met_ Dr. Slav? _The_ Dr. Slav?"

Keith and Pidge share a confused look. "Yeah…?"

"The man responsible for some of the most advanced technology in deca-phobes? The one who revolutionized teladuv travel? You met _that_ Dr. Slav?"

"He revolutionized advanced alien technology?" Pidge reiterates, now sitting up and paying attention.

"He's one of the heads of the EMPIRE," Keith informs Coran and reminds Pidge. "Whatever he's done, he didn't do it with intentions to help anyone but the EMPIRE."

Coran gasps in surprise. "No! But so many emergency aid programs were able to utilize his work to save so many lives!"

Keith shakes his head. "And I can only imagine how much the EMPIRE was able to take and sneak around with that kind of travel available."

Coran whimpers, mustache quivering. "And to think I wanted his autograph one day…"

"Is Slav really that well-known out here?" Pidge asks.

"A lot of his technology and medicine is highly sought after, but the best is usually given to the BALMERA, a kind of universal… oh what do humans call it, hospital?"

Keith and Pidge's eyes widen. "His stuff is used in hospitals?!"

Coran pauses. "You know, now that you've told me how he's involved with the EMPIRE I can understand why that's so alarming. You don't think they would…?"

"Oh, they definitely would," Keith growls. "How fast can you get us to this BALMERA? We have to warn them."

~

Pidge opts to stay on the ship, but Coran insists on tagging along with Keith. "I may be getting on in years, but don't count me out of the action yet!" Coran is _very_ insistent so Keith does the mental equivalent of throwing his hands in the air exasperatedly and concedes.

Pidge loads both of them up with more low-gravity appropriate gadgets before sending them off. "Grappling hook," she says as she straps one to each of their dominant hands. She taps the small glowing circle that's where the hook should be. "More magnet than hook." She holds up a small pyramid with a camera lodged inside one of the cut-off corners, lines along its side light up red as it hovers off her palm. "Drone. I call him Rover." She pats it and it beeps happily. "Keith, I upgraded your boots to adhere to whatever surface they're on even if you lose gravity."

"Wouldn't want another Kriesox incident," Keith murmurs with not so concealed mirth.

She points at him threateningly. "We do not talk about the Kriesox incident." Coran looks between the two of them bewilderedly. "Coran, since you're sort of a last minute addition, all I have to help you with the same problem are these mini gravity generators, so unfortunately you can't Spider-Man like Keith here."

"Spider-Who?"

Keith and Pidge blink at him. "Right, that's-"

Keith pats him on the back. "Don't worry about it, Coran. She just means you won't be able to run up walls like I'll be able to unless you build up enough momentum."

"Ah! Right-o!"

"I also managed to make my own design of that evolving phase weapon," Pidge tosses Keith a black handle bordered by two red guards. As soon as he catches it, it lights up and transforms into a futuristic broadsword.

"Whoa…" After a second of trial and error, Keith even manages to get the sword to revert to its more portable form.

Beaming proudly, Pidge holds up two ear cuffs. "I redesigned the comms, too. Less interference should get through and it took me a minute but I figured how to listen in on the frequencies they use out here."

"Great job, Pidge. You in BALMERA's system yet?"

A beep on the terminal behind her. "Yup."

"Then we're going in. Keep us posted."

"You got it. Oh, Coran, wait!" She tosses him a helmet. "Not upgraded yet, to my frustration, but it'll keep you from suffocating if someone decides to leave an air lock open."

Coran fits it on his head after a brief struggle and it covers all identifying characteristics once it's on. "Thanks, number two!" he calls as he and Keith walk back to the airlock.

"Number two…?" Pidge voice filters through to them over the comm once the first lock seals. Even Keith's a little stumped by that.

"I have you both ranked by height!"

Keith tries desperately to disguise his laughter as coughing as they're sucked out into space.

Still managing to hear him, Pidge lowly threatens, "Not a word."

~

"It seems the BALMERA is so universally known because of their healing crystals," Pidge says in Keith's ear as he lands on the outside of the BALMERA station, Coran landing next to him relatively more stably than Keith first expected, if a little louder than he would like. The upper right side of the sealed visor that drops down from his fedora lights up with a visual of the bright blue uncut crystal. "Any species, any ailment, fixed in no time. Man, if this was available back on Earth…" She whistles lowly.

"Focus, Pidge. What does the BALMERA have that Slav offered them?" Keith asks, walking around the station as he looks for an opening. Coran follows with his grappling magnet.

"Uhhh… Oh! It looks like the same ointment stuff that you stole just before we launched." A picture of the same small jar takes over the image of the crystal. "Looks like it's used for the last stages in reassignment surgeries, though it's the kind of thing that you have to keep coming back for. Figures."

"Any recent shipments come in?" he asks as he finds an unwatched lock and puts a decoder on the access pad next to it. "Also, password please."

"Open Sesame," Pidge quips as an incomprehensible stream of alien symbols light up the input and flash green while her gadget cackles its mechanized laughter.

Keith snatches it up and slips inside as quick as he can, Coran swinging in after him, and he slams the lock closed again. "We're in," Keith confirms.

"The most recent shipment waaasss… oh, that could be good and bad."

"What?" Keith asks as his visor withdraws and he rounds a corner.

"The latest shipment was three minutes ago," Pidge's voice answers as Keith freezes, locking eyes with none other than Nyma.

She smiles beatifically, all pale yellow and purple irises reaching from lid to lid. "Yorak."

Keith's lips barely move as he tells Coran, "Find the ointment, steal it before anybody can use it. Pidge, help him." And he leaps at Nyma with a feral snarl.

He just barely manages to dodge as she whips out a long rod crackling with electricity and aims it at his face. "Such a surprise, seeing you all the way out here," she says, still jabbing at him, still with that beatific smile.

Keith's face is a mask of determined rage in contrast. "Not surprised to see you here," he grunts, kicking out at her extended elbow and twirling under and out from it when she twists to block with it and switches the rod to her other hand to lash at him. "Of course you have no problem sabotaging a healthcare facility."

The smile finally changes into a pout of mock pain. "Ouch. And here I thought that old classmates were supposed to be friendly with each other."

He just barely manages to leap high enough to avoid a shock to his crotch. "You call that friendly?"

Nyma shrugs and swings for him again.

~

"Oh, well that doesn't look good at all."

"What? What is it?"

Coran looks down at the open container filled with tubes much different to the jar Keith had trusted him with, though they hold the same substance…

Or they're supposed to.

"The ointment it's… glowing a very worrying color…"

"Did you say glowing?"

"It looks like they've added kar'too, which unlike gar'too, would--" Two consecutive loud thumps.

Pidge, monitoring Keith's fight pauses in the middle of a code to target some of BALMERA's emergency systems on this ninja alien chick, and switches to the camera feed in storage, catching Coran's slumped figure being carted off. "Oh shit."

~

"Uh, Keith, we have a problem."

"Little," Keith grunts, dodging a punch and a jab, respectively. " _Busy._ "

"Coran's been taken." Keith's shock makes him hesitate and he almost gets clocked in the face for it. "I don't think your friend there is alone."

With a curse, Keith pulls out what he was hoping to keep hidden as a trump card, Pidge's evolving weapon, and swiftly de-arms Nyma and knocks her down. She lets out a curse of her own that's swiftly cut off when the edge of Keith's blade tips up her chin. "Who's here with you?"

"Keith." The voice, familiar but not calling that name, rings in Keith's ears.

"Rolo," he greets without turning around.

~

Deciding enough is enough, Pidge adjusts a few lines of code, and activates BALMERA's emergency protocol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am having way too much fun naming each chapter after a color
> 
> The characters of Voltron: Legendary Defender belong to Dreamworks and in no way are mine, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.
> 
> The characters of Carmen Sandiego belong to Broderbund (original) and HMH IP Company Unlimited Company (2019 remix).


	4. Green Protocol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Green lettering stretches out through the black between stars, a youthful cackle rings out through the void... announcing Her neverending victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapter summaries are just poetic bs that i wrote to entertain myself, i hope you all know this.
> 
> ...but then again, maybe it isn't?
> 
> I FEEL LIKE LIFE IS TRYING TO DROWN ME IN ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION SO YOU GUYS GET AN UPDATE SO I CAN PLACATE MYSELF THAT I'M PRODUCTIVE IN AT LEAST ONE PART OF MY EXISTENCE
> 
> ENJOY :DDD

Green washes over the hall in even intervals and heavy shutters drop down over portholes, blocking out the stars.

Keith tenses but keeps his sword and eyes trained on Nyma. Without prompt, Pidge informs him in his ear, "I initiated BALMERA's biohazard alert. You have five minutes to find Coran, mess up EMPIRE's shipment, and get out before the system locks the both of you in along with everyone else."

Keith chokes a little and hisses under his breath, " _Five?!_ "

"Come on, you're Keith Blade! You got this."

"I'm not a superhero, P-" He notices Nyma staring at him just in time. "-layer…"

"So there's someone else helping you out, Yorak?" Rolo's voice drifts out from behind them. "I already took care of your other pal that was wandering around."

Keith goes even more tense. "They better be okay--"

"What do you take me for?" Rolo scoffs. "They're fine. A little unconscious," he admits with a smirk in his drawl. "But fine. That helmet did nothing for blows, but I'll give you that it's very hard to remove." Electricity, charging up. "Besides, they have nothing to do with this-"

Pidge's shout of his name comes the same time Nyma smiles widely and Keith ducks, sweeping out his leg and knocking a lavender Rolo into Nyma, making the both of them slide into the wall with a loud thump. He takes off running before they can gather themselves. "Did you see where Rolo took him, Player?"

Furious clacking over his comm. "No," she grunts in irritation. "He took out the surveillance in several different hallways before he even went after Coran, but it doesn't look like it was very thought out." More clacking and then an exclamation of triumph. "Only one hallway with a supply closet big enough to stuff someone into without being seen by any hospital staff- Keith, hide!"

Without pause, Keith dives into the nearest shadow around a corner and holds his breath.

"Man, I hate biohazard procedures," A rocky looking nurse with glowing eyes grumbles to another as they walk by. "Those chemical showers are so eroding!"

"Eh, I like how they smooth me down," the other says. "It's like a free spa treatment." They grin while the other groans in misery.

"Okay, you're clear," Pidge says once they disappear around the corner. "Keep going how you were and then take a right." Keith takes off. "Another right here." He skids around the corner. "Now left." He almost slips on the linoleum. "Stop!" This time he does slip.

"Pidge!" he hisses.

"Sorry! It should be this supply closet."

Keith opens the door and is almost bowled over as Coran comes barreling out with a war cry and smacks into the wall opposite. "Quiznak!"

"Coran! Are you okay?" Keith asks, running over and helping him up.

"Number one! There you are, I was just on my way to save you." Keith raises a bemused eyebrow but Coran grabs his shoulders and shakes him. "They added kar'too!"

Keith blinks. "Bless you?"

Coran sighs. "That cream is no longer a healing salve, it's smearable explosive!"

"WHAT?!" Keith shouts and winces when Pidge's own shout blares in his ear.

"Shit, we have to get that stuff out of here, but how--"

There's a click-clacking faster than Keith's ever heard before and Pidge urges, "Get to the ointment. I'm already working on a solution."

"Got it. Lead the way, Coran."

Coran blinks at him in bewilderment.

"The ointment! We need to get to the ointment!"

"Oh, right!" They both take off. "Sorry, I believe my comm was destroyed when I took a rather nasty blow to the head."

A hiss of frustration in Keith's ear. "Well, sor _ry_. We can't all be engineers, you know."

They slide to a stop in front of the shipment and Keith's eyes widen as they take in the glow of the tubes. "That does not look safe."

Coran tugs on the ends of his mustache in distress. "It wasn't that bright before. It's getting more unstable!"

"And that means…"

"It's gonna blow soon!!!"

"Uh, Pidge--!!!" Keith squeaks.

"Got it! Take the whole thing to- Look out!!" Keith turns just in time to clash his sword with Rolo's staff. But where's Nyma?

A glance to the side reveals pale yellow creeping up behind Coran. "C, behind you!" Keith grunts, ducking as Rolo tries to take advantage of the opening.

Coran turns in time enough to duck from Nyma's electric rod with a squawk. "C, huh?" she purrs, circling him. "Not a very apt codename… Maybe that visor is blinding you? Perhaps you could _see_ better that way!" She lunges at him and swings at his head.

Coran ducks the rod and grabs her wrist throwing her over his head and into the wall, Nyma screeching shortly on the flight before the impact knocks her out. "I'd rather keep my gear on, thanks."

"Nyma!" Keith uses Rolo's distraction to send him sprawling too, knocking him over the head with the butt of his sword to keep him down for a while.

"Okay--"

"tHAT IS VERY NOT GOOD!!" Coran screams as he points at the very brightly glowing ointment.

"Pidge!" Keith yelps.

"Push it towards the nearest porthole!!" she commands. Keith pushes with his shoulder, but it doesn't budge until Coran adds his strength to the effort and they both get it pressed right up against the wall underneath one. "Take cover and hold on!" They both dive for the closest thing that's bolted down.

Pidge types in a few more lines of code and slams the enter key.

The shutter grinds for a second in resistance, but then it lifts.

"Keith, your sword!"

He throws it, and it smashes through. Immediately, all the tubes start flying out in the vacuum.

"It's not fast enough!" Coran shouts.

Keith ties his coat closed and then lets go of his anchor, activating his boots as he's snatched away and landing with his feet on either side of the porthole. He bends down and starts throwing the tubes of ointment out of the porthole as fast as he can. More sweat gathering at his temples and his forehead once the ointment starts glowing bright enough to make him have to squint a bit since he's so close to them. When the last tube is through the window, the shutter slams down over it.

A pause… and then a muffled boom.

"…Pidge?" Keith whispers.

"All clear. The blast was far from me, too. Which I really should've taken into account earlier."

Keith sighs in relief and Coran relaxes at the sound. Keith falls to his knees, and then promptly falls on his face once the soles of his boots leave the wall. "…Ow."

"Uh, Keith?" Pidge has a growing panic in her voice and it makes Keith tense up again. "You only have two minutes to get out of there!"

He pushes off the floor and slides around for a second as his boots readjust. "Shit! C, we gotta go!"

Coran hops to his feet and runs after Keith when he takes off. "Right behind you number one!"

"There's an airlock closer than the one you guys used to get in. Hang a left!" They turn, still running. "Left again." Another turn. "One more hallway, annnnd…"

The heavy duty sealing of the airlock greets them and there's no one around to boot. "You're the best, Pidge," Keith breathes as the lock on their side opens.

Her voice is rife with relief when her reply comes over the sound of it locking behind them, "I try."

They make it back to the ship with seconds to spare. As soon as Keith steps onto the Bridge, Pidge tosses something to him and he catches it while Coran struggles with his helmet a little ways off. He blinks in surprise once he actually registers what he's holding. "Your evolving weapon?"

Pidge smirks. "I had Rover fly out and grab it before the ointment blew." She pauses and scrunches up her face. "Not something I ever saw myself saying."

Her face scrunches up even further with a smile when Keith walks over and ruffles her hair. "The. Best."

~

Rolo wakes up alone and blinded with twin blue lights.

Two humans stare down at him.

"We're gonna need you to answer some questions."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am not doing so good, got in a fight with someone i care about and never got any resolution to it because they went right back to joking around like normal after an hour but i still feel shitty. BUT!!! all your comments about how you loved the last chapter and couldn't wait for more perked me up a bit, so i wanted to get this out as a thank you. you guys mean the world to me <3 
> 
> Pidge has always been and forever will be a complete Badass(TM) *sips tea* *lowers shades* Change My Mind.
> 
> so, out of curiosity... between Lance and Hunk, who do you guys think is the Bad Cop and the Good Cop?
> 
> The characters of Voltron: Legendary Defender belong to Dreamworks and in no way are mine, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.
> 
> The characters of Carmen Sandiego belong to Broderbund (original) and HMH IP Company Unlimited Company (2019 remix).


	5. Gold Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That golden shimmer is hope for some, but oft times it's the siren song heralding the despair of something greater that isn't attainable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooooo i changed the order of the episodes too... also-
> 
> PLEASE READ THE END NOTES TO HELP ME WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER
> 
> PLEASE I HATE WRITER'S BLOCK SO MUCH

Lance hadn't let this being out of his sight once. He was Lance's first clue to find Keith that he's gotten since he's been up here, he's not letting him slip through his fingers. 

…Is what he wants to say, but it seems like these EMPIRE guys that Keith is up against is a lot more serious about loose ends than they had anticipated.

The lavender guy is seizing in the interrogation chair, eyes glowing bright purple, and foam lathering at the edge of his mouth. Lance rushes over and releases the chair's bonds, reaching out and keeping his head in place- please let their biology be similar enough that he's preventing damage to the most vital part of him while the rest of his body flails- and screams over his shoulder, "Someone get a medic!"

One of the rock people he had first encountered when he was beamed up bursts through the door, but as soon as they take one good look at the being's eyes, they double back and call out the door, "Get the Chief, now!" And she- this is the one with the feminine voice- joins Lance in trying to keep the being from hurting himself anymore in his fits.

It only takes a minute, but time spent trying to keep someone seizing still seems like two seconds and two days at once. The Chief's eyes land on the being and her cheek marking begin to glow. "One side." Lance and the rock lady immediately make room and the Chief's fingers plant themselves on the being's temples.

A white-blue glow surrounds her.

Lance has the feeling he should look away, but the sight is more than a little… out of this world, so he's a bit spellbound. He comforts himself with the fact that rock lady doesn't look away either, from what he can tell out of the corner of his eye.

The same color that emits from the Chief appears in the being's eyes, battling against the purple. It's a few minutes of back and forth; each eye a different color, half the iris one the other half the other, one color reduced to a ring around the pupil, both colors speckled in the iris with the true color taking up a majority; and it ends when the being lets out a choking noise and the Chief slumps on herself, exhausted.

"I did my best," she sighs. "His life's not in danger anymore, but…"

All three ALTEA agents look to the being who stares lackadaisically at them through half lidded eyes, blinking in confusion. "…What's going on?"

~

"Gone. Every possible clue we had, snatched right out of his head remotely." Lance throws down his files on the table and himself into a chair at a table in the cafeteria, or whatever the space version of it is called.

"At least that guy is okay," Hunk sighs as he sits across from Lance, setting down both his tray and his best friend's in front of them. Hunk knows from experience that a frustrated Lance will try to starve himself while looking for his next breakthrough. "I feel kinda bad that we have to keep him on the ship instead of letting him get back to his planet, but this EMPIRE group really doesn't pull punches. Reminds me of those extremist bad guys in those action films we used to watch."

"The more we find out about these guys the more I understand why Keith keeps going after them." Lance opens the file and starts to shuffle through, only to freeze when he feels a stern stare on the top of his head. He glances up and catches Hunk's raised eyebrow as he pushes Lance's tray closer to him. Lance looks between the file and the tray, torn, until he scoots the files far enough away that they won't get messed up should he spill anything and starts to eat while still leafing through them.

Hunk rolls his eyes but leaves him be since he is actually eating, and starts on his own meal. "Why, though?" Hunk asks around a mouthful of something gelatinous but delicious. Hunk shakes his head when Lance raises his with a frown. "Nuh-uh, don't give me that look. You're the one who told me that _everyone_ has a motive. I get that you have this idea that Keith's a righteous thief, but he had to have figured out about these guys first to start thwarting them, and based on what we've read from the files ALTEA has on them, the only ones who really know about the EMPIRE are, like," Hunk gestures and Lance quickly pulls the files away before they get splattered with goo. "Really not good people, Lance. What if he was mixed up with them?"

Lance moves the files to the other side of his tray, farther away from Hunk, and narrows his eyes at him. "We won't know for sure until we actually ask the guy." Hunk sighs but leaves Lance to his digging, letting him think while they both eat. As always, Lance starts muttering while his thoughts churn, "Without that being, was his name Rolan? We're back to square one in looking for a trail."

"EMPIRE."

"Yeah… until we can actually figure out Keith's motives, his number one focus is stopping EMPIRE wherever it tries to make a move. If we can figure out EMPIRE's motives…"

"We can figure out where they might strike next." Hunk nods. "Well, that's easy. EMPIRE's a criminal organization, what's the most criminal thing you can think of happening in space?"

"The Yalexian Pearl being stolen." Both Lance and Hunk look up at the voice.

Hunk flushes as soon as his eyes land on the rocky being. "Shay!"

Lance shoots him a look. "Shay?"

Hunk flushes further under Lance's scrutiny. "Lance, this is Shay. She's been showing me around the ship when we aren't busy looking through files." When he's busy obsessing over new files and figuring out how to navigate them when Hunk had already mastered how the system worked and memorized everything he needed to know within the first couple of days with his genius memory skills, Lance translates.

"Hello, Detective Garrett," She beams at Hunk and sends a friendly smile at Lance, "Hello, Detective McClain."

The voice registers with Lance then. "Wait, weren't you the one of the, um…"

"I am Balmeran," Shay provides graciously.

"Yes, sorry. One of the Balmerans there when the Chief first, you know," He makes alien abduction noises and gestures.

"Lance!" Hunk hisses embarrassedly, but Shay only laughs.

"Yes, I was. My brother and I were there to make sure the teleporting and condition's outside of your planet's atmosphere didn't cause any averse affects. You and Detective Garrett are the first humans aboard The Quin-Justice, you see."

Lance blinks in comprehension. "You're a doctor!"

"I believe that is what they are called on your planet, yes." Shay nods.

"What were you saying earlier about this yleaction pearl?" Hunk asks.

"The Yalexian Pearl, yes, I-" The surface of her cheeks light up with a faint blue glow and when she goes on, Lance realizes it's a blush of embarrassment, "I am afraid I overheard part of your conversation. But if someone wanted to do something truly criminal, they would go after the Yalexian Pearl. It is a fossil of the eye of one of the universe's most ancient beings, but it is said to contain within it, the hope of the universe's future."

"Huh, and that is?" Hunk asks as Lance's mind races.

Shay shrugs sheepishly. "No one knows. It is considered to be just a rumor, but because of it, the fossil is of great value."

"Then the EMPIRE would definitely be after it." Lance stands abruptly. "We have to let the Chief know--"

"Oh, no!" Shay sets down her own tray and waves her hands frantically. "It is of great value, yes, but it is well protected on Yalex--"

"The Chief should still be notified of the possibility, though." Lance turns and waves over his shoulder. "Thanks for your help, Shay!"

Shay frets as she watches Lance walk off. "Don't worry," Hunk reassures her as he gestures for her to sit down and eat. "Lance has a habit of running off whenever he's got something."

"But we are not certain if the EMPIRE would truly be after the Yalexian Pearl," she murmurs, digging into a soup with legs that Hunk eyes warily but shrugs at.

"If Lance has a hunch they'll go after it, then they probably will."

~

Both Lance and the Chief have their heads pressed down into the meeting room's table while Hunk and Shay sit near them with light frowns.

"Five. Minutes," Chief groans, lifting her head and her hand to put her fingers very close together while she laments to the ceiling, "We were _this close!_ "

"Who knew that the pearl would turn out to be an egg, though?" Hunk whistles, still internally marveling at the size of the baby Yalexian beast. "Never seen a baby the size of a moon."

"And to think that lazer fire would be what it needed to hatch," Shay breathes. "It is truly a wonder of life."

The Chief slams her hands down on the table and stands up, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Detectives, this is the closest we've ever gotten to the EMPIRE. Surely you have another lead?"

"Only if you can think of another priceless artifact that any criminal would want to get their hands on," Lance offers, head still on the table but tilted so he can see her.

The Chief brings a hand to her chin and starts pacing. Lance takes this time to wallow in his bad timing. A snap brings him back out of it. "That's it!"

~

"I can't believe things like auctions are universal," Lance's voice drifts into Hunk's ear over comm.

Hunk shrugs, internally delighting as the motion reminds him once again that Shay's hand is on his arm. "It's only feasible that the exchange of goods for currency has come about wherever sentience has. It's the same as markets, just, you know," Hunk adjusts one of the gold lapels of his sunset yellow suit. "Fancier." He darts a glance at the draping robe in the same gold as his lapels Shay has on. "You, um, you look very nice, by the way, Shay."

Shay giggles at him. "You look very nice as well, Detective Garrett."

Hunk hazards a glance at the other well-dressed beings seated and chatting while they all wait for the auctioneer to come in and start, relieved to see no one listening. "Might want to drop the titles for tonight, seeing as we're undercover."

Shay puts a hand to her lips as she looks around as well, a lot less subtly. "Oh yes, of course."

"Can't believe you guys had human formal wear on hand," Lance mutters over comm.

The Chief's voice pipes up when Lance's fades. "We didn't. However, the descriptions you gave were enough for us to synthesize a suitable garb."

Hunk tugs at his lapels again. "I will never get over how cool alien technology is." His attention is snared when doors in the back of the room open, a fairly loud sound amongst the quiet murmuring.

Everyone else turns to see who's walked in just as Hunk and Shay do.

"Head's up, Lance, ya boy is here," Hunk mutters as the pale man with dark hair in a bright red suit struts in.

There's a noticeable absence of sound from Lance's end as even his breathing stops, and then he says, "I'm in position."

Hunk's brow furrows, but he turns around before he can be accused of staring too long. "It looks like someone else is here with him, though."

"What?!" Lance hisses.

"Can you describe them?" The Chief asks.

"I can," Shay answers. "It looks like another human. A… male?" she asks Hunk, who after a quick look, nods. "A male with orange hair on his head and face."

Scribbling is heard over the comms. "Any distinct characteristics?"

"Not that I can see from here."

"Keep an eye out, both of you."

They both give their affirmatives. "Looks like the auction's about to start," Hunk murmurs as a noodle like being walks up to the podium.

"Bi! Bi boh bi!" the noodle being enthuses.

There's a pause as everyone in the room stares at them.

Another being, this one looking like a tardigrade in a hazmat suit, hurriedly waddles up to stand beside the noodle. "Bi Boh Bi wishes to welcome all of you to the Displaced Beings Charity Auction!"

The seated patrons, now that they all understand what is being said, clap politely with small smiles or approximation thereof.

"My people, the Taujeerans, lost our planet due to it coming to the end of its life cycle. While a natural occurrence, this still left us with nowhere to go and if it were not for a passing kind soul we would have perished along with our planet." There are murmurs of sympathy. "We started this charity to check on all planets believed to be dying and extend aid in moving whatever beings might be there to a more stable one suited to their needs. All proceeds earned in this auction will go towards aiding this cause, and I'd like to start tonight by thanking everyone for just coming here. Even just spreading word of our charity will do a world of help." Everyone chuckles at the Taujeeran's joke.

"Bi! Bi, bi. Bi boh!"

"Our first item up for sale is…"

Expensive object after expensive object is brought up to be bid on, and while Shay keeps up the pretense by oohing and ahhing along with the audience and throwing up the occasional bid, the Chief had warned them ahead of time how many credits were their upper limit and they only bid on things they knew they would be outbid on anyway, Hunk keeps his attention on Keith.

"He hasn't made any move yet," Hunk murmurs into the comms. "Him or his companion." It's at that moment that Keith does move. "Wait, he's… bidding?"

"Bi! Bi! Boh boh bi!"

"We have three hundred thousand on the light space cruiser from the man in red!" the Taujeeran translates excitedly, confirming that Hunk saw Keith lift his betting paddle.

"He's going after a light space cruiser."

Lance groans. "Say goodbye to ever catching up with him."

The Chief snorts in irritation. "Agents, we need to be able to catch up with Keith Blade. Do whatever you must to keep that cruiser away from him."

"You mean buy it?" Shay asks softly.

"I'm raising the limit on your funds now," The burble-ripple of the sound the holograms on the ship make when touched. "Get that cruiser."

"Yes, ma'am," Shay whispers and shifts in her seat, grip on Hunk tightening, and his heart melts a little at her excitement. "Four hundred thousand credits!" she shouts.

"Bi! Bi boh!"

"Four hundred thousand from the woman in gold!"

"Five hundred." Keith's low voices oozes into the respectful silence of the other bidders still deciding on whether or not to bid.

"Biii!!"

"We have five hundred!"

"Five hundred and fifty!" Shay calls, nervous but determined.

"Six hundred."

"Six hundred and fifty!"

An irritated huff. "Nine hundred."

Shay hesitates. Hunk murmurs, "Chief…"

More burble-ripples in rapid succession. "We have a million and a half cleared. Do it!"

"One million, five hundred thousand!" Shay belts.

A riotous murmur goes through the rest of the auction house. Bi Boh Bi frantically bangs their gavel for control though they have a beaming smile on their face.

"For the price of one million, five hundred thousand credits, sol--"

"Three million."

The auction house is dead quiet as everyone turns to look at Keith. Even his companion makes a choked sound and whips around to him. Keith takes a second to lean over and reassure him, and the Taujeeran asks, shakily, "Sir, are you certain?"

Keith looks up and smiles. "Absolutely. Nothing's too pricey for charity."

"For the price of three million, the item of _a Kriesoxm lightspeed cruiser_ ," The Taujeeran reiterates just for clarity that this is not the most pricey of cruisers out there, yet Keith still nods with a smile. Bi Boh Bi bangs their gavel. "Sold!" More murmurs start up over the hullabaloo that just happened. Keith's smile widens and he says something to the man next to him, who shakes his head exasperatedly and cradles it in his hand, sinking down into his seat. "Thank you, sir, for your generous purchase!" The Taujeeran is close to tears but Keith just waves the thanks away.

"We are so fucked," Hunk hisses quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just so there's no confusion, both the Yalexian Pearl fossil and this universe's credits are a golden color. hopefully that makes the summary make more sense.
> 
> so, hey y'all! i have no fucking clue whose POV i should be writing from next chapter! i tried to get this one focused back on Lance, but Hunk stole the show (and honestly, i ain't even mad) so that's why i named the chapter after gold, for Hunk's yellow theme and also because he is a ray of sunshine. BUT next chapter Keith and Lance are gonna meet up again after ~~all these years~~ several long months that almost add up to a year, and i have no idea whose shook mind i want to delight in more. please, PLEASE comment telling me who you guys would like to hear the story told from. just a name is fine if you don't want to put anything else, **BUT PLEASE**
> 
> The characters of Voltron: Legendary Defender belong to Dreamworks and in no way are mine, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.
> 
> The characters of Carmen Sandiego belong to Broderbund (original) and HMH IP Company Unlimited Company (2019 remix).


	6. Lost To The Grey Mist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some say fog is grey, some say that it's colorless altogether...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i want to thank oswaldide very much for the enthusiastic suggestion of whose pov i should write from, but unfortunately i couldn't write the entire chapter from her point of view once i had an idea of where i wanted the plot to go. i did manage to squeeze in some of her headspace near the beginning, and that's all thanks to them, so for those of you who love reading from Pidge's pov, please go thank oswaldide!

Keith chuckles to himself at the thought of what Pidge's face will look like once he tells her he managed to get ahold of some of the tech from the planet they had both made fools of themselves on, trying to get it while dealing with the weird gravity there. He has no problem spending three million of the EMPIRE's credits to be able to evoke what he's sure will be frustration-tinged awe mixed with gratitude, once she's stopped meddling with ROVER long enough to jump back on the comms, that is. Especially because they have about nine hundred and ninety seven more million to spend.

Coran straightens himself from his slumped position next to him and looks around. "Oh, that shiny fellow looks particularly upset about his friend losing the bid."

"Shiny fellow?" Keith turns. He locks eyes with Detective Garrett, both of them surprised once it happens. Keith definitely knows who he is. Back on Earth, he had gotten the Detective's name after so many times hearing Detective McClain and he call out to each other, and learned what he looked like by way of Pidge's hacking of the Police Department's files. Seeing him all the way out in the middle of space is the biggest surprise, but… well, Keith's out here, so he has no room to judge. And if _Garrett_ is here… A slow smile grows on Keith's face. Then McClain is definitely somewhere nearby.

Detective Garrett hurriedly ducks his head while murmuring something, and the Balmeran next to him leans down to him in concern, but the damage is already done. Keith chuckles harder.

"Do you know each other?" Coran asks curiously.

"Yup. He's good, don't worry. Pidge and I know him from Earth."

Coran's eyes widen. "Your non-space faring planet?" He takes another unsubtle look back at him, practically gaping, but Keith lets him. "How'd he get all the way out here?"

"That's what I'm wondering."

"Should we go and ask him once the auction's over?"

"Nah, my reputation on Earth was a little…" Keith cringes and shrugs. "He might freak out if I go over. And since he's seen you with me, he'd probably do the same with you."

"Hm. Well, if you're sure."

~

"I've been made," Hunk strains into the comm.

"What?!" the Chief barks.

"Keith saw me, and it looked like he recognized me."

A plethora of cursing. "Where is he now?"

Hunk glaces up. "He's… He's still sitting there?"

"What?" Both the Chief and Lance.

"He's still in his seat, he's not… Maybe he didn’t see me?"

"Oh, he definitely saw you," Shay confirms. "When you ducked, he was talking to his companion who also turned around to look at you. They seemed surprised, but I am sure that Keith smiled while looking at you."

"What?" Lance squawks. "Why Hunk? He hardly ever talked to the guy! I chased him on rooftops!"

"Putting that aside," grits the Chief, and Lance quickly quiets down, though he still grumbles, "Perhaps he doesn't want to disrupt the auction."

"I guess," murmurs Hunk, unconvinced.

"Bi, bi bibi!"

"Our next item up for sale is an Olkarian data chip!" the Taujeeran auctioneer's mask lets out some air in their excitement. The others in the Auction house echo it, sitting up straighter and murmuring excitedly.

"What's so exciting about a data chip?" Hunk asks Shay.

"It is not just any data chip, Hunk. It is an Olkari data chip! Before they disappeared, they are said to have been the most technologically advanced species in the universe. To find a piece of their work, even something as small as a data chip, is extremely rare, and it very well may have the secrets to advancing many other kinds of tech if in the right hands."

There are gasps around the auction house as the data chip is revealed to be missing from its case.

"Or spell the universe's doom if in the wrong ones," Hunk mutters.

~

Pidge is very happily working on upgrades for ROVER, who lets out sleepy beeps every now and then, when a control panel next to her dings with a call coming through the comms. "Y'ello, this is Galactic Pizza, may I take your order?" she answers with a smirk, going back to the delicate circuitry while sticking out her tongue.

"What's pizza?" she hears Coran ask faintly, before Keith cuts in.

"Pidge, something's been stolen."

She raises a brow. "Ooookaaay…?"

"Not by me," Keith huffs. "We think it might be the EMPIRE."

"Oh, shoot." She puts down her tools and wheels herself to the control panel. "Searching the feeds now." There aren't many cameras on this planet, the permanent fog rendering them useless, but from what little there are she sees the vague outline of someone's silhouette. "South side of the building. They seem pretty confident, whoever they are, because they're sauntering. You better still hurry, though."

"Already on our way. Be ready if we need you to pick us up for a chase."

"ROVER and I are standby." She grins as ROVER beeps drowsily in agreement.

~

"Come on, Coran. An exit should be somewhere around--" Keith cuts himself off as he slides to a halt. Coran almost crashes into him but manages to avoid him at the last second, Keith feels him peeking over his shoulder to see why he stopped.

Ahead of them stands Detective Garrett with a wide stance and crossed arms. "ALTEA would like to have a word with you, Keith."

Keith feels his brow lift. "ALTEA?"

"ALTEA?" Coran questions over his shoulder. "Is Alfor still trying to get in contact with me?"

"Who?" Garrett asks, but winces and covers his ear, leaning like he's trying to get away from it.

Both Keith and Coran recognize it for the chance it is and bolt past him, the Detective soon realizing his mistake and charging after them with a shout. Coran and Keith share a look. "I got left," Keith says.

"Right!"

They split up.

Garrett makes to continue after Keith but with another wince and ear hold, doubles back and makes for Coran. Keith swiftly makes it outside and heads South. "What the heck is an ALTEA?" Keith mutters to himself.

"Only the coolest cops in the universe," A familiar voice boasts.

Keith stops in his tracks. He turns with a smirk. "Lance McClain."

The Detective comes sauntering out of the mist, smug smirk gentling into a genuine smile when his eyes land on Keith, who finds his smirk to be doing the same. "Keith, surely you can call me by my first name. We've known each other for a while, after all."

Keith's smile turns impish. "You sure that's a good idea, Lance," he purrs the name and the other man shivers.

"Maybe not," Lance mutters quietly, but Keith hears him clearly with the fog helping his voice echo. The Detective shifts and rubs the back of his neck as he takes in what Keith's wearing. "You look good. Space life treating you well? Or…" His eyes gain sharpness as they meet Keith's. "Is it the thief life?"

Keith hums and completely ignores the second question. "I could ask you how space life is treating you as well. How did you get all the way out here in the first place?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

A silent stare down.

"Keith!" comes Pidge's voice through his comm. "That person is still getting away! They've almost gotten away from all surveillance and once they do that, even I won't be able to track them anymore."

Keith shifts his weight from foot to foot and lets his eyes comb through the fog around him.

There. A high building with a big enough roof to stand and hopefully run on. A bit too sloped, but he brought his grav-boots just in case…

His eyes slide back to Lance, who's taken a step closer while Keith was preoccupied, with a look on his face that says he knows what Keith's up to. "Keith, we just want to talk…"

"Why do I feel like that's not the whole truth?" Keith shakes out his grappling hook from his sleeve. "Up for a run, Detective?"

Lance lunges and Keith hops back, firing back at the roof he spotted earlier without looking. He waves at Lance as he's yanked up and away. Lance growls and runs at the building, already searching it for scale points as it reveals itself from the fog and Keith faces forward as adrenaline pounds through his veins in a rush. He grins.

He's missed this.

~

Lance decides that he much prefers the architecture on Earth to any other planet, simply for the fact that it has more hand and footholds. He had to shadow Keith from the ground for two buildings before he hopped onto one that Lance could finally climb. From there, all he had to do was watch his footing and keep track of the red through the grey mist.

Chasing Keith like this… is nostalgic. If nostalgia could be paired with something that makes your blood race faster than it has in a long time. It's also relieving. In the back of his mind, ever since he last saw Keith on Earth, there was doubt. What if it wasn't Keith doing all this and he was chasing someone else? What if he's still back on Earth and suffering from whatever that canister did to him? What if… What if whatever happened was some form of hyper-radiation and Keith… died?

But he was there, in front of him. Same insufferably attractive smirk, seemingly no ill-effects from whatever turned him purple before. And dressed to kill a Lance- a man! Dressed to kill a man! Or a woman! …He has no idea if Keith even likes women or not. Or even men. He seemed interested back when they first met but he did turn him down… Wait, did he turn him down 'cause he likes girls?!

Lance slips but hurriedly corrects his footing. And he savagely berates the warm feeling that spreads through his chest when Keith slows and looks back, checking to make sure he didn't fall. He should not be thinking like this, he's in the middle of a chase! Keith's their best chance of making sure the universe stays safe, he- they need to talk to him, irregardless of Lance's feelings.

Narrowing his eyes, Lance puts on speed.

~

Pidge feeds him directions on where their mysterious figure is headed while he keeps an ear out to make sure _Lance_ doesn't fall off roofs that are unfamiliar to him. Months later and in the vast unknown of space and the Detective is just as reckless as always. And since his partner isn't here to call out constant reminders to be careful and is instead chasing Coran around on someone else's orders, he has to be the one to make sure the bullheaded idiot stays alive.

…Also, would it kill Lance to run a little quieter? Keith's trying to catch someone here, and it would be a lot easier if he had the element of surprise.

They must have heard them coming, because soon Pidge relays that she's lost sight of them on the surveillance, and he doesn't catch a single sign of them.

So, with a sigh, he drops down from the roofs and disappears into the mist.

The fog carries Lance's dismayed, " _Dammit!_ " All the way to Keith's ears.

~

"I lost him," Lance relays to the comms.

"I lost my guy, too" Hunk sighs. "Somehow managed to pay for Keith's bid while running from me and got away in the cruiser they bought."

Lance chokes at his (hopefully not) revelation. "That was Keith's sugar daddy?!"

"Obviously not," the Chief bites out. Lance tries to ignore just how relieved that makes him. "Whoever that was with Keith is now our highest priority. He somehow knew my Father…"

"Is that who he was taking about who was trying to find him?" Hunk asks.

"Alfor Altea was my predecessor and the founder of this organization. He taught me everything I know before the EMPIRE got a hold of him. When he refused to tell them what they wanted to know… they killed him."

Lance stops walking. "Chief…"

"It is the past," she dismisses. "What's important now is making sure they never do the same to anyone in the future." Lance purses his lips, but slowly starts walking again. "That man immediately connected the Agency's name to my Father. Perhaps he doesn't even know about the Agency at all and was just referring to him. Regardless, very few people even know about him at all, which is why I'm curious why he does."

"You think he might be a threat?" Lance asks.

"Possibly."

"I don't know," Hunk hums, "When the guy mentioned your dad he looked… exasperated, more than anything else."

"Either way, we've got another person to add to our list to bring in for questioning," the Chief says with finality. "Did any of you happen to catch his name?"

"I think Keith said it when he was coming around the corner," Hunk mentions. "Something that ends with Anne."

Lance snorts. "Anne, really?"

"Dude, it's space," his friend berates him, "Our naming conventions don't apply out here."

"Still, did the guy even look graceful?"

"Graceful enough that I couldn't catch him!" Hunk says with no little irritation.

"…I see your point."

"When you two are quite finished, you can all head back to the pickup point and we'll send down a shuttle. We must come up with another strategy to find Keith Blade and his companion."

"Companions," Lance murmurs as he changes direction to just head straight for the pickup point instead of going to meet up with Hunk and Shay.

"Pardon?"

"When I was chasing Keith on the roof, his movements were…" Lithe, agile, beguiling; shut up, brain. "Erratic. Like he was looking for something, or he was following directions as they were given. And Hunk, you said your guy somehow managed to pay _while_ you were chasing him?"

"Yeah."

"Chief, is that possible with what you know about the credit system here?"

"It's a universal credit system, so it's the same no matter where you go, but… Hunk, did you see him pull up any holoscreens while you were running?"

"No."

"Then he definitely didn't."

"Keith definitely has at least one other person working with him besides that Anne man, and they're probably their tech guy," Lance says with utter confidence.

"Do you suppose that's why they stole the Olkari data chip? So that their 'tech guy' could get ahold of it?" Shay finally pipes up.

Lance thinks again of Keith's erratic movements. Searching, or evading? "Maybe."

"We'll discuss this more when you get back to the Quin-Justice." Lance's comm goes quiet as he finally makes it to the pickup point, left alone with his thoughts.

~

"Not bad, Lance," Keith hums under his breath where he's staked out on a roof high above the Detective's head, binoculars trained down on him. He had puzzled out Pidge's existence with only a few small clues that people wouldn't normally look closely at. Logically, Keith knew Lance had to have earned his rank for a reason, but it was different seeing, or rather hearing, that mind of his work it out first hand.

"Please don't fall for the cop," Pidge's voice rings out from the earring not muted and tuned onto whatever frequency Lance and Garrett were using. "Don't be that clichéd type of thief," she groans.

"What's wrong with looking?" Keith hums playfully as he lets the binoculars sink down a bit.

"I have no problem with you looking, just don't drool over him. Had enough of that ooey gooey crap during college, bleugh." He can practically hear her disgusted shiver.

"…You can't even see me right now, how would you be able to tell I'm drooling?"

" _Oh my god--_ "

"Pidge, shhh, their shuttle's here." Contrary to what some may believe on Earth, Keith did know how to be stealthy. As soon as he was out of Lance's sight, he had reversed both his hat and coat to its dark grey underside that blended in with all the grey buildings and fog that surrounded him. Pidge was especially proud of them, because she was the one to figure out how to make both sides able to function as a makeshift spacesuit and helmet should the need ever come. So when the… Altea, shuttle touched down and Lance, Garrett, and the Balmeran filed on after the latter two hurried up; and when it took off, they didn't have even the slightest inkling that Keith was watching them, or that he threw a small tracker onto the underside of the ship when it swooped near him. "Tracker's in place."

"I have their realtime coordinates onscreen." A few minutes pause. "Whoa… Keith, you're gonna wanna see this."

Keith drops his visor from his hat and sucks in a breath at the image projected onto it. "That's where they went?"

"Yeah."

The spaceship the shuttle docks into is huge. White and blue and imposing amongst the void of stars. It looked like a friggin' space castle. "How the hell did Lance get ahold of these guys?"

"Who cares?" Pidge grunts, sounding a little frazzled but focused. "You better be real glad that you bought that Kriesoxm cruiser or we would be so screwed right now." Clacking on a keyboard and then the hum of a function starting up. She sighs in relief. "Cloaking is now online."

"And you didn't even have to get a face full of dirt this time," Keith teases as he stands up and then hops off the roof.

"I said we were never going to speak about that again."

"You said it, I never agreed to it." Keith grins when Pidge growls incoherently in irritation but he sobers quickly. "How are those image resolutions coming along?"

The sound of a desk chair wheeling itself around. "It should be juuust abooout… done!"

Another image pops up on Keith's visor. He wouldn't have even recognized her if it weren't for the cat perched on her shoulder. "Narti," he huffs.

~

He had run into her in the halls at school. He had seen her before, thought the sash over her eyes was a weird fashion choice and that she had an over attachment to her pet to have it with her constantly… until they spoke with each other.

Well, he spoke and she signed.

' _I'm blind and mute,_ ' she told him. ' _Kova is my seeing eye cat._ '

"Never heard of a seeing eye cat."

' _Technically, you still haven't._ '

And Narti and Kova worked well together, extremely well. Narti was one of EMPIRE's top thieves thanks to her and Kova's stealth.

Keith actually looked up to her and asked her for a lot of advice. She's probably the reason he's able to make so many escapes, even in the middle of a chase, so easily. She was practically his stealth teacher.

"And now she's stealing extremely valuable technology," Pidge cuts into his thoughts.

Keith shifts his weight from foot to foot, not taking his eyes away from the feeds projected onto his visor, while he waits for his order to be ready inside this alien café on the same planet the auction was held. "She was doing that before, too. So was I, I just didn't know it."

"But she does know," Pidge is unrelenting. Keith says nothing as his order is called out and he takes his food from the being with a nod. "What's up with you? You had no problem kicking those other two EMPIRE guys' asses."

"Narti is… was different. Rolo and Nyma were always so loud and competitive, it wasn't that much of a stretch for me to put them in the 'enemy' category in my mind, but Narti… Narti was quiet and helpful and supportive. She was like a big sister."

"Your big sister with no eyes, two toes on each foot, and a tail."

"She looked human when I knew her," Keith grumbles. "Though I guess that blindfold wasn't just to cover her blind eyes… Did she even have fake human eyes under there?"

"Focus, Keith. Right now, this chick is not your sister-figure. She's going to hand over really advanced tech to an organization that's trying to take over the Universe."

Keith shakes his head. "Yeah… Okay, what have you got so far?" he asks as he sits down at a table outside in the fog.

"Okay, since she disappeared into the mist, there's been no sign of Narti on any cameras I can hack into. _However_ , there was a signal that went planetside from somewhere out in space and I _wasn't_ able to snatch it."

Keith perks up, spraying crumbs as he says, "The EMPIRE."

"Right you are, my uncouth friend. Soon after that signal came another I couldn't hijack, coming from a ship that according to my calculations should be entering the atmosphere above where I told you to wait riiight abooout… now."

A black and grey cruiser with purple detailing briefly cuts through the mist above Keith's head and he chokes a little on his snack as he sucks in a startled breath. "A little more warning than two seconds in advance, Pidge?"

"You know you love how dramatic I am."

"Excuse you, _I'm_ the dramatic one."

"Actually, I rather thought that was my role," comes Coran's voice over the comm.

Keith and Pidge pause.

"Yeah, okay."

"That's fair."

Keith crams the rest of his snack in his mouth and takes off after the cruiser.

~

"Alright, I'm on the planet, tell me where I'm supposed to meet you." Nyma glances at the video comm where Narti faces the camera neutrally, Kova curled around her shoulders.

Nyma's vision ripples and she jerks the ship's controls when suddenly all she sees is an innocuous street corner, exactly where it is now a firm idea in her mind.

She only breathes when the ship's interface is back in front of her. "You know," she hums shakily, "I know sign, you didn't have to do your weird mind juju."

An image of a ticking clock takes over her vision, making her swear and jerk again.

"So what if it's faster?! For my peace of mind, just sign!"

On screen, Narti holds up a broad, clawed middle finger.

~

"Back to the dynamic duo, eh?" Lance asks Hunk. When he receives no response, he looks over to find his friend pouting and snickers at him. "I see how it is, you'd rather have the pretty doctor be here instead of your best bud." He ups his loud dramatic declaration by pressing the back of his hand into his forehead.

"What?" Hunk glances at him distractedly, and then once Lance's words register, "Oh! No, no no no, absolutely not, buddy. I'm just… being vigilant."

"Uh-huh, sure." Lance sighs. "Are we sure we got good intel?"

"The alien barista confirmed that they served a being that looks like him, so unless there's a shapeshifter around…" Hunk shrugs.

"But we should have seen him by now. I haven't seen a speck of red on this planet besides him."

Hunk raises a brow at him. "Dude, you don't think that maybe he _didn't_ wear the bright, eye-catching red coat and hat while waiting for his getaway?"

Lance stops walking altogether. "Oh. Oh my god… I'm an idiot."

Hunk nods his head. "Right now? A little, yeah." He slaps him on the back. "It's okay, Lance. We all space out on things from time to time."

Sighing, Lance turns his head but pauses and starts to grin when he sees a flash of red disappear around the corner. " _Orrr_ , I am absolutely right and common sense can suck it."

"What?"

Lance grabs his hand and pulls Hunk after him. "Come on!"

They both veer around the corner and Lance runs right into…

A pale yellow alien with purple eyes.

Lance just manages not to topple the both of them over by letting go of Hunk and pinwheeling a bit. "Sorry, are you okay?" he asks, eyes quickly roving the side alley and snagging on red darting off to the left.

She blinks her sclera-less eyes at him and then smiles. "Oh, how sweet of you to ask, I-"

"I'm sorry, but we're in a bit of a hurry," he cuts her off and swerves around her, Hunk right behind him.

"Hey, wait!"

Lance rounds left and comes upon Keith facing off with an eyeless alien with a long, strong looking tail that they look ready to use against him at any wrong move. He screeches to a stop and so does Hunk. They keep quiet and Keith's voice travels to them on the mist.

"You don't have to do this, Narti. You were _my friend_ , I-… I would like for us to continue being friends."

Lance furrows his brows and when he looks at Hunk, he sees that he has the same look of confusion on his face.

The alien, Narti, signs something and Lance curses himself for never learning, or maybe it's alien sign so he would have no idea either way.

"Do you think this could be his tech guy?" Hunk whispers.

"A little too combative for that," Lance says, referring to Narti's stance. "Plus he said, ' _were_ my friend'. I think they may be on different sides. Maybe the other one's EMPIRE."

"Or they're running away from the EMPIRE and Keith is trying to bring them back." Lance shoots Hunk a look. "We've gotta be impartial here, man. Chief prioritizes getting leads on the EMPIRE more than Keith himself."

And then the pale yellow alien springs out of nowhere and rushes Narti, roundhouse kicking her right in the solar plexus- or the equivalent of- and sending them flying. Holding up the Olkari data chip between two fingers, she smiles at Keith. "Thanks for the distraction, Keith. I'll meet you back at EMPIRE headquarters." And then she disappears into the mist, the other alien now long gone now that their prize was stolen, or whatever just happened.

Lance grits his teeth at her words, but soundlessly creeps towards Keith all the same.

"What was that about?" Keith sounds just as confused as Lance and probably Hunk are.

Lance secures the cuffs around one of Keith's wrists, fastening the other to himself, the metal going smooth all the way around without any keyholes and a flexible but durable cord instead of a chain. Keith whips around to be met with Lance's hard stare. "We'd like to know that, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and this is where we _really_ go off the rails, Carmen Sandiego-wise.
> 
> i wrote Lance as a lot more competent than Devineaux, but i haven't really gotten the chance to show that, because while his deductions into Keith's reasons and motives are actually on point, they could still be explained away by him wanting to believe the best of the man he's attracted to and letting that blind him from impartiality. so... he's got Keith now, and he also has a reason to reevaluate every action of Keith's so far without rose-colored lenses. though i'm sure he'll some to the same conclusion ;)
> 
> the name Anne, can mean either 'favor' as in 'the favored' or 'grace' as in 'gracious' or 'mercy'.
> 
> i love Narti with all my heart, she was done dirty in canon. i picture her in whatever setting i come up with as living her best life with lots of opportunity to sass everyone that she takes every time and a tropical drink in hand. fite me
> 
> The characters of Voltron: Legendary Defender belong to Dreamworks and in no way are mine, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.
> 
> The characters of Carmen Sandiego belong to Broderbund (original) and HMH IP Company Unlimited Company (2019 remix).


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